Posts Tagged ‘Pocahontas’

I’ve always favored Fauxahontas over Pocahontas. It’s a little more clever and sidesteps some of the criticism that people want to level at Trump for calling Elizabeth Warren Pocahontas.

So a reporter is giving Sarah Huckabee Sanders hell because Trump used the “racial slur” “Pocahontas” to refer to Elizabeth Warren. First of call: being called Pocahontas is hardly a slur, racial or otherwise. If someone calls you Shakespeare, Washington, Lincoln, or Patton, it is hardly an insult. Pocahontas was actually a pretty cool person. Being compared to her is usually a compliment. For reference, a racial slur for a Native American may be “redskin” or “savage” or something to that effect. The insult in “Pocahontas” comes from the irony of the use. That is to say, he is calling someone who claimed to be Native American “Pocahontas” as a way of pointing out her appropriation of the Native American culture.

This particular reporter demanded to know if Trump saw some sort of political value in calling people out in racially.

Well, what I can tell you is that Elizabeth Warren saw a lot of economic gain from telling people that she was a Native American when she was not. She took a job, a position, away from a REAL Native American.

The reporter also wanted to know if it was ever appropriate for the President to use a racial slur in any context.

But I guess it’s okay to fake being a member of a different race and take away a job from someone of that race?

And that’s why I have zero respect for anyone who wants to paint Trump as a racist for calling out a CLEARLY white person for PRETENDING to be a Native American. You cannot convert “Pocahontas” into a racial slur. The only time that this is an insult in the highly specific fact patterns you have before you: where the term is applied to someone who PRETENDED to be Native American for their own gain. If you are not massively OFFENDED at that, then you are not allowed to pretend to be offended by the other. This is a case of someone just being mad that someone is calling out Elizabeth Warren because the reporter LIKES Elizabeth Warren. I guarantee you, if Trump had ever put on a building application that he was Native American to score a job, this same reporter would be OOOOOUUUUTRAAAAAAAGEEEEED!!!! by his actions. And if Elizabeth Warren called Trump “Shitting Bull,” this reporter would be yucking it up. Faux outrage. Period.

Here’s an example, dumb-dumbs. Calling someone who lied about serving in the military “Who, Braveheart?” is not a Scottish slur. It’s a slur by comparing one person with a certain virtue against another who lacks that virtue. In this case, a noble Native American from history contrasted to a lying white person.